


He Takes Her Back in the End

by bar2d2s



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-12
Updated: 2015-05-12
Packaged: 2018-03-30 04:35:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,315
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3923122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bar2d2s/pseuds/bar2d2s
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>[imported from Tumblr circa 2012]</p>
            </blockquote>





	He Takes Her Back in the End

He could tell something was off the second he entered their base.

He’d only stepped out for an hour, to pick up some new Chucks to replace the ones that hadn’t escaped Mick’s ‘accidental’ warehouse fire. An hour. That was it. And when he returned, he was hit by a wave of silence. The TV was off, no music was booming out of Axel’s room, and if it weren’t for the murmur of voices in the kitchen, he would assume the place was deserted. 

“Dad? Axel? Len? Anyone here?” Owen called, heading towards the only place that radiated life. At the sound of his voice, the conversation stopped. His dad called out to him.

“In the kitchen, son.” If his dad seemed oddly formal, Owen didn’t pick up on it. 

The kitchen had awful flourescent lighting that washed the color out of everything. It made the yellow walls look sickly, and it made people look even worse. Or so he assumed it was the lighting’s doing. Why else would his dad look so pale? It was then that he noticed the room’s other occupant. A beautiful brunette woman with big brown eyes blinked up at him, as if she barely recognized him. It had been over a year since he’d seen her last, yet he’d know those eyes anywhere.

“Mom!” His voice didn’t crack, or so he told himself. Owen launched himself into her arms, forgetting about his recent growth spurt, forgetting that he wasn’t a little kid anymore. Meloni took the hug well enough, the chair she was sitting in screeching backwards a bit. Now that he was up close, his mother looked…older. Much older than she should. “Mom, what happened? You were supposed to follow us right after! Did you get caught? Were you in jail? How long has it been for you? It’s been about seventeen months here. Mom?” Digger cleared his throat, and Owen scrambled back, off of his mother, to go and stand beside his father.

“It’s…kind of hard to explain.” She started, biting her lip. Digger snorted, and she glared at him.

“How about you just tell 'im what yeh told me? Or better yet,  _show_ 'im.” Owen looked between his parents, completely confused. 

“Mom?” Meloni sighed.

“Boys, come here.” Almost immediately, two blurs, in red and green, entered the room. The twin boys, identical except for their hair colors, were still wearing their government-issued jumpsuits. They looked to be about eight years old. Owen’s jaw dropped. “Owen, these are my sons, Bart and Thad. Boys, this is your big brother, Owen.” His head reeling, Owen staggered backwards into the wall. “Owen!”

“They, they’ve got speed.” He stammered, starting to sink towards the floor. “They’ve got speed, better than mine. They’ve gotta be… _you shacked up with Don Allen_?!” Her face went scarlet.

“Don’t you speak to your mother that way!”

“Some mother!” He spat. “Abandon us here, shack up with the guy that wanted us jailed…he had the sci-cops come after me at school! He’s the reason I can’t ever go back home! He’s…the  _enemy_ , mom! And you had his kids!”

“She had  _one_  of his kids. Her dad  _cloned_  me.” The blonde twin said flatly, crouching down in front of him, a bored look on his face. “She and dad at least  _wanted_  Bart.” Their mother seemed almost flustered, then.

“No, Thad, we wanted both of you. We were just a little…shocked when we found out about you.” Every time she would say 'we’, Owen winced. 

“So, what happened to him, then? Why didn’t you just keep on ignoring us, your old family?” Before she got the chance to speak, the other boy, Bart, spoke up instead.

“Grampa happened. He killed dad, and Aunt Dawn, by handing them over to the Doninators.”

“Dominators.” Thad corrected, and a confused look came over his twin’s face.

“Isn’t that what I said? Anyway, mom came here because she knew that grampa wanted to kill me, too. And she said that you two were the only family she had in history that was worth a…darn. And she missed you. I don’t remember a lot from when I was little, but I know that mom always seemed kinda sad. Cause she missed you.”

Owen looked over at his father. It had always gone unsaid, about how much they both missed Meloni. She was his mother, and the love of his father’s life. And now, with this blatant betrayal out in the open…how would he feel about it? Could he accept her back in his life? Digger’s face was blank. Obviously, he and Meloni had gotten their shouting done while he was out.

“…dad?”

Digger started, as if he’d only just realized that he was still in the room. After a minute, he cleared his throat again.

“Well. We’ll have ter move out of the base, find a public school for Bart and Thad ter go teh…but I think we ken make this work.” Owen and Meloni both stared at him, then reacted as one.

“You’re just going to forgive her?!”

“You’re fine with it? Just like that?” He sighed, pointing at his wife and son.

“Yes, and another yes. Owen, yeh don’t get this yet, but I love yer mum. Practically since the moment I met her. She’s saved muh life, and I’ve saved hers. We’re bonded like that. Meloni…yer a nut. Practically incurably bonkers. Yeh broke my heart when yeh showed up with them kids…but yeh showed up. Yeh came back ter me. And that’s what matters.”

Having both his parents together in the same room again granted Owen a little-known superpower, moment sensing. Standing up, he grabbed each of his new brothers by the shoulders, steering them out of the room.

“Alright, squirts. Time for you to learn a little about the 21st century, and this thing parents and big brothers alike use to babysit their children. We call it a TV. It’s like an Omnicom, but you can’t interact with the people in it.” Bart made a face.

“So why would we wanna use it?” Owen sat his brothers on the couch in the living room, then ran upstairs to Axels room. Surprisingly, they were still sitting there when he came back down.

“Because of  _this_. Gentlemen, allow me to introduce you to the Xbox 360.”

Bart took to the gaming system right away, but Thad seemed to prefer reading one of the books Mark had left wedged in between the cushions in the couch. In the end, Owen decided that while he wasn’t happy that his mother had cheated on his father, she could have done a much worse job raising his brothers. 

Absently, he reached over and ruffled Bart’s hair, snatching another book that had been stuffed in the couch away from Thad moments after. This one…was probably Len’s. And ew, did he not want to think about that at all.

“Wait here. Axel’s got some comics in his room, and I know Mark’s got an entire library of classics…but it may be best to wait until he gets home. Axel I can take. Mark would beat the crap outta me.”

And that was how they spent the next few hours. Later, their parents came out of the kitchen and informed them that the brothers would share a room that night, then tour the city with Owen as they house hunted the next day. If there was one thing that could be said about Meloni, it was that she was definitely fast when it came to decisions. As he watched Bart show his mom how to play Mario Kart, Owen found himself smiling.

She’d come back. His mom was finally home. And yeah, she brought some unexpected guests with her, but still. They were all together, at last. A family. Just like he’d always wanted.


End file.
